Typical S. Californian bookshop

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Typical S. Californian bookshop

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1darrow
oct. 6, 2015, 10:13 am

I took this photograph in San Diego recently. Books on Religion: more than 1000. Science and Nature: 25.

2stellarexplorer
oct. 6, 2015, 11:13 am

Gotta know your customers. The other approach might be "we know what's good for you!" But what good is it if you can't stay in business? ;)

3lilithcat
oct. 6, 2015, 11:14 am

Why do you say this is "typical"?

4lorax
oct. 6, 2015, 11:23 am

That doesn't seem very typically Southern Californian to me. What was the bookstore?

5reading_fox
oct. 6, 2015, 11:35 am

Maybe they're the books that haven't sold?

6darrow
Editat: oct. 6, 2015, 1:08 pm

>3 lilithcat: I am not a CA resident but I visit often. It is typical of the bookshops I have visited near San Diego. This bookshop was in a San Diego shopping mall. The books are all new. This is not Barnes and Noble but their shops also have many shelves under "Religion" and few science books.

7lorax
oct. 6, 2015, 1:14 pm

Two things to note:

I see that the "Religion" section includes "Religious Fiction" which probably boosts the size a lot. (See the sign on the top left shelf between "B" and "C". In most stores this would probably be shelved separately or with fiction.

Books such as The Happy Atheist and The God Delusion are usually shelved in the Religion section.

The hate for Southern California, not precisely notorious as a heavily religious area, is baffling.

8abbottthomas
Editat: oct. 6, 2015, 1:22 pm

It struck me a while ago that when you split an author on LT, as often as not one of the split authors will be a writer of Christian books. Many writers of Christian books seem pretty prolific. There seem to be many publishing houses dedicated to religious works. Does all this imply that the USA is a religious country?

>7 lorax: I rather like Southern California (unless it is really hot). In my daughter's quiet suburban street there is a church in a slightly extended and modified private house that gets full to bursting. Latin American Catholic of some sort. Better neighbours than many.

9lorax
oct. 6, 2015, 1:38 pm

>8 abbottthomas:

I had mixed feelings about LA when I lived there (the negatives mostly related to the huge unsustainable sprawly nature of the place), but "excessively religious" wouldn't be on the list of the top 100 things I disliked about it.

10darrow
Editat: oct. 6, 2015, 5:42 pm

Perhaps I was wrong to suggest that it is typical of all of S.California. I have visited many bookshops south of L.A. and it applies to them.

My atheist daughter and her family live about 30 miles north of San Diego. Almost all of the families in her neighbourhood are religious and attend church. She is regularly pestered to get involved in church activities. Her next door neighbours are Mormons. She warned me not to discuss evolution with anyone (it's something I like to do).

11Meredy
oct. 7, 2015, 2:56 am

The most prominent title is at the left end of the second shelf, so I looked it up on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Messi-Novel-Andrei-Codrescu-ebook/dp/B00YO78SH2/ref=sr_1_1...

Messi@h: A Novel by Andrei Codrescu

Sure sounds to me as if it were laughably misclassified. I remember once finding John Kennedy Toole's The Neon Bible in a religion section too. I'm thinking those shelves might reflect more ignorance than bias.

12paradoxosalpha
oct. 7, 2015, 8:44 am

>10 darrow: south of L.A.

Is that the staunchly "conservative" area that my friends from that region refer to as being "behind the Orange curtain"?

13jjwilson61
oct. 7, 2015, 10:29 am

Orange County isn't as conservative as it once was. We've even elected a Democrat or two. Northern San Diego County is a different matter.

14darrow
oct. 8, 2015, 11:14 am

>12 paradoxosalpha: My experience is a from a little further south. Oceanside to San Diego.

15SpikeSix
oct. 9, 2015, 4:33 pm

Maybe, to save space, the bookshop combined Religion with Humour.

16darrow
oct. 11, 2015, 6:37 am

if you are religious you are going to need a lot of help accepting some of the crazy ideas. Most of the books provide that help.